Structural Asymmetry and Chiral-Induced Spin Selectivity in Chiral Palladium-Halide Semiconductors

Sang Nam, Jaewook An, Woojae Jeong, Jong Oh, Joseph Luther, Matthew Beard, Tae Han, In-Hyeok Park, Young-Hoon Kim

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus Citations

Abstract

Chiral Pb-free metal-halide semiconductors (MHSs) have attracted considerable attention in the field of spintronics due to various interesting spin-related properties and chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect. Despite their excellent chemical and structural tunability, the material scope and crystal structure of Pb-free chiral MHSs exhibiting the CISS effect are still limited; chiral MHSs that have metal-halide structures of octahedra and tetrahedra are only reported. Here, we report a new class of chiral MHSs, of which palladium (Pd)-halides are formed in 1D square-pyramidal structures or 0D square-planar structures, with a general formula of ((R/S-MBA)2PdBr4)1-x((R/S-MBA)2PdCl4)x (MBA = methylbenzylammonium; x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1) for the first time. The crystals adopt the 1D helical chain of Pd-halide square-pyramid (for x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75) and 0D structure of Pd-halide square-plane (for x = 1). All the Pd-halides are distorted by the interaction between the halide and the chiral organic ammonium and arranged in a noncentrosymmetric position. Circular dichroism (CD) for ((R/S-MBA)2PdBr4)1-x((R/S-MBA)2PdCl4)x indicates that chirality was transferred from chiral organic ammonium to Pd-halide inorganics. ((R-MBA)2PdBr4)1-x((R-MBA)2PdCl4)x (x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, and 0.75) shows a distortion index of 0.127-0.128, which is the highest value among the previously reported chiral MHSs to the best of our knowledge. We also find that (R/S-MBA)2Pd(Br1-xClx)4 crystals grow along the out-of-plane direction during spin coating and have high c-axis orientation and crystallinity, and (R/S-MBA)2Pd(Br1-xClx)4 (x = 0 and 0.5) crystals exhibit a CISS effect in polycrystalline bulk films. These results demonstrate the possibility of a new metal-halide series with square-planar structures or square-pyramidal structures for future spintronic applications.
Original languageAmerican English
Pages (from-to)15045-15052
Number of pages8
JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
Volume146
Issue number22
DOIs
StatePublished - 2024

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/JA-5F00-90158

Keywords

  • cations
  • crystal structure
  • crystals
  • diffraction
  • quantum mechanics

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